Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution was a sociopolitical movement in China from 1966 until 1976. The movement was launched in May 1966, after Communist Party of China chairman Mao Zedong alleged that bourgeois elements had infiltrated both the party and society at large, aiming to restore capitalism. After Mao insisted that the revisionists be removed through violent class struggle, China's youth formed the "Red Guards", and the movement spread to the military, urban workers, and the Communist Party leadership itself. The movement led to widespread factional struggles in all walks of life, and top Communist Party leaders such as Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping were purged from power. Mao's personality cult grew to immense proportions, and millions of people suffered public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, hard labor, sustained harassment, seizure of property, and, sometimes, execution. The urban youth was sent to rural areas to educate the peasants in the "Down to the Countryside Movement", historical relics and artifacts were destroyed, and cultural and religious sites were ransacked. The active phase of the revolution lasted until after Lin Biao's purge in 1971, and Mao's death and the arrest of the "Gang of Four" in 1976 led to Deng Xiaoping and reformers within the CPC ending the revolution. They declared that the revolution was responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the country, and the people since the founding of the People's Republic.